A Reading Blog

Reading is an environmentally triggered skill. You have to be taught in order to learn. Children, however are not blank slates. The experiences they...

Developing Vocabulary: a Pointless activity

Michelle Nicholson shares some practical strategies for developing vocabulary with a particular focus on exploring closely related words.

Spelling: tracking back to move forward

Michelle Nicholson explores the importance of building links to prior learning to help close gaps in children’s spelling.

Our Journey to a Reading Revolution

In this guest blog, Cowley Hill Primary School share their exciting journey towards creating an irresistible school library.

Read it like you mean it!

A timely blog from our archives, reminding us that reading fluency has been high on our agenda for some time.

Writing that is going places: developing cohesion, chronology & control in Year 5

Jane Andrews and Martin Galway share insights from the development and trialling of a new writing intervention that focuses on developing confident,...

What do we mean when we talk about reading (and writing) fluency?

Martin Galway shares some of the key messages and content from his recent presentation on fluency at this 2019’s ResearchEd national conference.

Big Draw – drawing changes lives

The Big Draw Festival stimulates creative juices all over the country and promotes the power of drawing. The theme for 2019 is ‘Drawn to life’.

Reflections from analysis of the 2019 KS2 reading SATs: part 4

In this series of blogs, Penny Slater takes an in-depth look at the 2019 reading SATs paper and draws out some key points for reflection.

Getting forensic with phonics: Ofsted’s focus on the early stages of reading

Common questions emerging from the new Ofsted EIF, and suggested next steps.